Crossing Hatteras Inlet 12 Times a Day

It is nice to know the 5 to 7 lb Striped Apes (At Bonito) are chewing off Atlantic Beach. It is nice to know the first wave of Cobia are here. It sucks to be sitting on the MV Hatteras. The pilgrims are migrating to Ocracoke Island........... We are having Atlantic Bonito for lunch today. Ceviche, Grilled, and Sushi. It's all delicious. ******Next week I have May 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 OPEN and COBIA will be biting******

April 25 Citation Cobias, Citation Bonitos, all you want Bluefish

This morning I got pushed off AR 315. I mean, come on, there's 5 boats jigging and casting metal over one small spot and here comes a shiny, new, wrapped 60,000 dollar Bay Boat no doubt with a freshly minted "we give the test" Captain at the helm. pulling 4 planers and spoons. Right through the fleet. Thankfully I left those the Reef and all those 1 lb Bluefish......What I found---The Day of the Year! And everywhere I went, I had it all to myself... In I had 9 Atlantic Bonito strikes on metal, put 4 in the box from 5-6 lbs, released 3 at 25" to 26", lost a giant one at the net, and broke one off. Then we ran to Cape Lookout and caught Bluefish on every cast with top water plugs. Nice Blues from 2-3 lb each. Then we went east and looked for Red Drum. We found Cobia. Lots of them. We botched several. I ran over plenty. Chris caught a 66 lb Cobia. Chris released a 45" Cobia. I caught a 25 lb Cobia. Total Catch for the Day: 9 Atlantic Bonito up to 26", 3 Cobia up to 66 lbs, 50 Bluefish, and 2 Black Sea Bass  

April 24 Part Two---Double Mung Hole Grand Slam

Words can't describe the joy of a Pumpkinseed in spawning colors after a day on the Ocean chasing something that isn't there..... Total Catch in 10 Minutes: 2 Pumpkinseed, 2 Largemouth Bass and 2 Bluegill

April 24 No Bonito---Bonito Fishing

Still looking for my first Atlantic Bonito amid a flood of rumors..... I hate to say it, but with the way dudes are hyping "their fishing business" and "general bragging", I dont believe anything that I don't see.... I know I judge some people wrong but I also catch quite a few liars, and a fishing lie is really just a fishing tale, no big deal... Let's just say, the elusive and much-coveted Bonito were not there on Thursday in their normal place.... They weren't there today either.... In the meantime the water temp has dropped from 69 to 63 at AR 315 and AR 320. Have the Bonito made it north of New River Inlet???? Believe what you want.... So anyway, fishing was great today for 1-2 lb Bluefish. All you want, one at a time on metal or two at a time on speck rigs. Also big, adult, pregnant Smooth Dogfish were at Cape Lookout in good numbers. The biggest I caught was a 24 lb monster. Medium sized Spiny Dogfish were mixed in as well. The always interesting Cownose Rays in out in huge schools. I always like to catch a few Cownose Rays every April. Good practice for patience with a long fight for the upcoming Cobia migration. Big Fish on Light Tackle, I like to say. Today's Cownose Rays that were released were in the 40 lb class. Brown Mambas. The bottom bag also included the first Pinfish and Hogfish of the year. Several Black Sea Bass and a Sea Robin. The Top Water Boat didn't perform flawlessly, by any means. Hopefully the kinks are worked out though. Lots of fish around, lots of big fish. Lots of Trophy Fish will soon be here. I can't wait. Total Catch for the Day: 100 Bluefish, 8 Smooth Dogfish, 1 Spiny Dogfish, 3 Cownose Rays, 4 Black Sea Bass, 1 Pinfish, 1 Hogfish, and 1 Striped Sea Robin

Cobia are Coming and the Top Water Boat is Ready

The Boat is out of the shop and is ready to go..... I'm tired of fishing for Largemouth Bass. Lets go catch some Giant Red Drum, Atlantic Bonito, Bluefish, and Gray Trout. Ready to roll April 23, 24, and 25... Next time I'm Home its COBIA TIME.... COME ON The Picture is Jeremy with a half day catch.... 94 lbs, 78 lbs, 4 more over 50 lbs..... You should've seen the other half day's catch! More of the same.... Last year was an EPIC COBIA YEAR from Lookout to Hatteras Starts May 4th for me!!!

April 22 Capt Marty's Darkest Day

Today could've been my best ever in Fresh Water. The way it turned out, Chris will never forget it...... I lost 2 Potentially CAREER LARGEST LARGEMOUTH BASS and FELL IN A POND. Korey laughed and Chris snickered. The Bass were chewing plastic worms like crazy. Fished 4 ponds. Two Ponds were redhot. I lost 2 freaking "Freshwater Gag Groupers". One of them I had hooked twice. Legit 10-12 pound Largemouth Bass. Other was a just a run of the mill 8-10 pounder. Too much wind created a bow in my line, too small of a rod and only using 8 lb mono, those are my pitiful excuses. All 3 bites were solid and on all 3 bites I DID NOT SET THE HOOK PROPERLY. All 3 times I got a peeled back plastic worm flying back in my face. What a nightmare. I knew I was in Carteret County's best Big Bass Water and I screwed it up. Royally......Korey won the battle with 3 lb 8 oz Largemouth Bass. We all caught plenty of 1-2 lb. Bass. Could've been epic. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Largemouth Bass and 5 Bluegill. 

April 21 Mung Hole Grand Slam

Chris got a Mung Hole Slam. A Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, and Pumpkinseed. Chris also got a 2 lb Largemouth Bass. I caught a Bass and crushed the Bluegills. All fish caught on ultralight spin and live caterpillars. The Bass were nice ones for a rainwater catch basin in Beaufort. Lot more life than last week. Fishing was brisk with automatic bites and lots of Bass cruising the shoreline. Total Catch in 20 Minutes: 5 Largemouth Bass, 15 Bluegill, and 1 Pumpkinseed

April 20 Great Fishing

Chris and I went looking for Atlantic Bonito on the SS Tugwell because the Top Water boat is crippled. Unfortunately the Bonito were a no-show this morning, but everywhere we went, we found epic numbers of fish. We found one fish in particular, a 7 ft Thresher Shark,  that would've made this "a day to remember". But it wasn't to be..... First up was AR-315 at daylight for the Bonito, but they were not here. However the bottom was paved with 1-2 lb Gray Trout. Catch all you wanted, two at a time on a speck rig, or one at a time on a stingsilver. Whatever. Then the 150 lb Thresher Shark showed up, more than show up, he twice leaped clear of the water! And, incredibly, even the Gray Trout a half mile away disappeared. Schools the size of a football field vanished. All at once. It was amazing....... In an effort to catch the Thresher Shark, I pinned a live Trout on a big bucktail on my Cobia rod and swam him over the Reef to with NO RESULTS. A nice Thresher Shark on spin would've been nice... Moving on, we ran down to AR-320 and stayed 5 minutes and I caught 3 really nice Black Sea Bass... Moving back to Beaufort Inlet and a 2 hour melee on 2-4 lb Bluefish. Every cast on metal. In the breakers and on every shoal. The Bluefish were gorging on 4" Menhaden. We caught them until we couldn't stand it. The last 25 I caught were on a barbless single hook. Every cast, awesome action. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Gray Trout, 85 Bluefish, 2 Croaker, and 3 Black Sea Bass

Aug 14-15 Hatteras Bass, Carp, and Squid Fishing

I got to be at work at 12:30 and it looks like a good week to fish. As far as the Hatteras Beach goes, low tides are occurring in the morning so I'm on a bad cycle. The past 2 mornings I've rode the Beach and nothing has been happening. Where are all the Bluefish and Sea Mullets I been hearing about? They are probably biting better about the time I have to go to work when the tide is up. So today I went up to Avon and tried to catch a Carp. Unfortunately I still haven't had any luck with those 30 lb Carp, but I did catch 3 Largemouth Bass on a plastic worm and a Turtle on a bloodworm. The Bass were 1-2 pounders. At least that's something. Last night, I was playing around with some nice sized Squid but I didn't have my Squid jigs. I used a mirrorlure and had 15 strikes, but none of them got hooked. Thats the crazy thing about Squid. You CAN NOT hook them, they must grab a point of a hook in order to get caught.. Even crazier, I did manage to catch a 9" Bloodworm last night that was hooked on 2 treble hooks of my mirrorlure. Did it bite the lure? I'm not sure, but this is Hatteras! ***Update*** On the nights of the 14th and 15th, I did mange to a catch a couple of nice Loligo Squid. This variety makes great calamari. I managed to get my hands on a couple of squid jigs, but the Squid are full of eggs and they aren't real aggressive. Squid fishing is always fun and I love to watch them explode in clouds of ink. Also I managed to make $20 by swallowing a squid eyeball. A fool and his money......Total Catch for the Day/Night: 3 Largemouth Bass, 4 Squid and 1 Bloodworm

April 11 Back to Hatteras

I'm headed back to Hatteras for a week. When I get home on the 19th, it will be time to get serious about some Salt Water Fishing. I am availiable on April 20th thru April 25th. I will be looking for Atlantic Bonito, Albacore, Bluefish, and schools of Giant Red Drum. Give me a call if interested in fishing. 252-241-8350

April 10 Pumpkinseed Action

Cloudy day so I didn't go look for the massive school of Red Drum that we found a year ago.... I went freshwater fishing instead and I didn't fish for Largemouth Bass. Seems like lately the best way for me to catch a trophy Largemouth Bass is to fish for something else.... Didn't work today, but my favorite sunfish variety, the Pumpkinseed, were active and all colored up for spawning. It was a good day for action and numbers and I really didn't fish very long. Total Catch for the Day: 20 Bluegill, 5 Pumpkinseed, and 1 Green Sunfish

April 9 Lunker Largemouth Bass

I got the rare opportunity to fish the lengendary Lennoxville Ponds today with Korey B and on a whim I bagged up a bunch of caterpillars..... Tossing artificials wasn't paying off much, so Korey tossed out a caterpillar and quickly caught a small Bluegill that he started using for live bait. In the meantime, I had gotten tired of fighting algae. I figured I'd amuse myself with the caterpillars and catch small Bream. Wouldn't you know after about 10 Bluegills, I get a bite that is "much different" than the others. A drag puller, but not a jumper.. After a long battle and a hike down the shoreline, I landed a 8 lb Largemouth Bass. On a caterpillar! Afterwards I caught 2 really nice Bluegills (Beaufort standards). Korey caught a small Bass and many Bluegill. Fun Fishing excursion. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Largemouth Bass and 25 Bluegill

April 8 Bluefish Slaughter

Really pretty day, my only complaint was the water on the Cape Lookout Shoals was a little dirty. From the Tower, we could see bottom good in 3-4 foot of water. And there was nothing to see. So, Mark, Scott, Justine and I had passed up a slow bite at the Rock Jetty to go scour the Shoals, and there was nothing to scour! So I took a chance and ran to a wreck about 6 miles farther to the east. Its a small wreck and it took a couple of minutes to find, but when we found it, we found Bluefish stacked up 50 feet. It was every drop, every rod. Killer fishing. I caught 1 Black Sea Bass and that was it for variety. Justine reported a Shark followed up one of her Bluefish. Other than that, nothing but 1-2 lb Bluefish. Damn, I forgot. On the way home we found many, many schools of Albacore lined up and plowing into schools of redbait. My first cast, I caught a 10 pounder. Fifty casts later, for Mark and I, we gave up without getting another strike!! Total Catch for the Day: 100 Bluefish, 1 Albacore and 1 Black Sea Bass  

Apr 7 TOMMORROW

Look for a real Salt Water Fishing Report on April 8th!!!! The Top Water Boat has returned from it's Hatteras Hidaway and is ready to scour the Cape Lookout Shoals....

April 6 Bass and Bream

I've had a lot to do today. A major water leak inside my house and I'm certainly no plumber or sheetrock guy. I got problems, thats for sure. I got the leak stopped and the tide out of my bathroom. Now I got holes in the wall and a bunch of soggy sheetrock. Oh well, everybodys got problems.... Except Butch.... Anyway, an Insurance Adjuster came after lunch and looked at my mess, we'll see how that goes. After my meeting, I headed over to a local Mung Hole and made a few casts with a Roostertail Spinner. Nothing spectacular but I did catch a few Largemouth Bass and a couple of Bluegills. One of my Bass was a 1 pounder that made 3 nice jumps and made a nice battle on 6# spin... I actually saw a Largemouth Bass that will be an "eye opener" if I manage to catch him in the future. This one definitely "rules the Mung Hole".  Total Catch for the Day: 4 Largemouth Bass and 2 Bluegill

April 1 Was This Largemouth Bass Joking?

April Fool's Day and I was fooled pretty good. I finally went on my Carp Fishing Expedition and I promise everybody that I saw some incredible Carp. A couple of them looked like Cobia swimming down the shoreline. I saw a smaller one too. The small one was 8-10 pounds. The larger Carp I saw were easily 30+ pounders, and I'm holding back! Unfortunately, either they weren't biting today or I haven't figured out how to catch them yet. I did see a Carp landed today that was 18-20 pounds that was snagged. Pretty work and those boys said there was a big school of them. Of course, the school was gone as soon as the treble hook struck..... So after much effort, I did have one bite. On a ball of Wonderbread Classic White Bread. This bread ball was sitting on the bottom and I hadn't moved it for 10 minutes, when suddenly my line started moving. I set the hook and a 7 lb Largemouth Bass hurled itself skyward!!!! Do What? To really make the story even harder to believe, as I was reeling in my bread-eating Bass, a much larger one followed her in. This one was a legit 10+ pound Largemouth Bass, a real trophy fish! Do What Again? I did my best to lob another breadball in the direction of the Giant Bass. Bread was all I had! Anyway, the big Bass disappeared into the crystal clear, gulf stream blue-dyed water and I was left with an April Fools Tale to tell. Only this one comes with a picture. Total Catch for the Day: 7 lb Largemouth Bass 

High Winds and Squid Explosion

Here I sit at Hatteras, with the Night Shift, with my Boat, with nothing to do all day, and Bluefin Tunas and Killer Whales just over the horizon to the East....... And here is the latest NOAA Marine Weather Forecast: Friday W 15-20, Saturday W 20-25, Sunday NW 15-20, Monday S 15-20, Tuesday SW 25-30...... In other words, I aint going fishing. Not in the Boat anyway. So Tuesday, me and my Boat are headed back to Beaufort Inlet. Hopefully the weather will improve. Its got to...... Last night at Hatteras Inlet something strange happened. On both sides of the Inlet, millions and millions of Squid showed up out of nowhere. Don't get too excited, these are tiny Squid. I just hope its a good sign that next December I will be catching 12" to 18" Squid on squid jigs by the bucketfull like I did in 2008 and 2009. Regardless of their size, it was an amazing sight. They turned the water into a red soup under any light, but even out of the lights if you looked hard enough, you could see them. They were literally everywhere........ Also yesterday, I found a long dead 50 lb Black Drum on the South Beach. I could've used him for my Citation Quest.